(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a carrier member made of a UV resistant fiber-reinforced composite material and a process for producing thereof. In particular, it relates to a member made of a carbon fiber-reinforced composite material suitable for carrying a precision instrument element such as a liquid crystal display and a silicone wafer and a process for producing thereof.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Carbon fiber-reinforced plastics and carbon fiber-reinforced carbon composite materials have been used in, for example, sports and leisure goods such as a golf shaft, a fishing rod, a tennis racket and a ski stock; industrial and medical products such as an industrial robot member, a printing ink roll and a pressure vessel; repairing of a bridge; and repairing of a civil engineering structure. In particular, carbon fiber-reinforced carbon composite materials have been used as materials for, for example, a brake in an airplane, a brake in a rapid transit railway, an atomic reactor and a jet nozzle in a rocket.
As a liquid crystal display has become larger, a light-weight, rigid and heat-resistant CFRP has been gradually used, instead of a conventional metal material such as aluminum, as a carrying member for an industrial robot for carrying such a precision instrument.
Since most of precision instrument elements are extremely sensitive to contamination with oil, dust or dirt, irradiation of ultraviolet rays in a vacuum ultraviolet region has been employed for decomposing and cleansing organic materials in some processes. A carrying member made of a CFRP or C/C composite is organic so that it cannot be used as a carrying member in an apparatus employing UV irradiation in a vacuum ultraviolet region due to decomposition of a surface.
To solve the above problems, an objective of this invention is to provide a carrier member made of a fiber-reinforced composite material which tends not to contaminate a precision instrument element even when used in cleaning with UV while maintaining properties inherent to a fiber-reinforced composite material such as lightness, higher rigidity and heat resistance, as well as a process for producing thereof.
This invention discloses the followings.
1. A carrier member made of a UV resistant fiber-reinforced composite material comprising a UV resistant coating layer in the surface of the fiber-reinforced composite material.
2. The carrier member as described in above 1., wherein the UV resistant coating material consists of one or more materials selected from the group consisting of ceramics, cermets, metals and alloys.
3. The carrier member as described in above 2., wherein the UV resistant coating material has a thickness of 50 to 250 xcexcm.
4. The carrier member as described in above 1., wherein the fiber-reinforced composite material consists of a fiber-reinforced plastic or carbon fiber-reinforced carbon composite material.
5. The carrier member as described in above 4., wherein
the fiber-reinforced plastic or carbon fiber-reinforced carbon composite material comprises a plurality of layers comprising unidirectional reinforcing fibers; and
the unidirectional reinforcing fibers in at least one layer are oriented within an angle range of xe2x88x9220xc2x0 to +20xc2x0 to a longitudinal direction of the carrier member while the unidirectional reinforcing fibers in the remaining at least one layer are oriented within an angle range of +75xc2x0 to +90xc2x0 and/or xe2x88x9275xc2x0 to xe2x88x9290xc2x0.
6. The carrier member as described in above 5., wherein the fiber-reinforced plastic or carbon fiber-reinforced carbon composite material further comprises a layer comprising unidirectional reinforcing fibers oriented within an angle range of +30xc2x0 to +60xc2x0 and/or xe2x88x9230xc2x0 to xe2x88x9260xc2x0 to a longitudinal direction of the carrier member.
7. A process for producing a carrier member made of a UV resistant fiber-reinforced composite material comprising a step of coating the surface of the fiber-reinforced composite material with a UV resistant coating material by spraying or CVD.
8. The process for producing a carrier member as described in above 7., wherein the UV resistant coating material is made of one or more materials selected from the group consisting of ceramics, cermets, metals and alloys.
9. The process for producing a carrier member as described in above 7., wherein the fiber-reinforced composite material consists of a fiber-reinforced plastic or carbon fiber-reinforced carbon composite material.
10. The process for producing a carrier member as described in above 7., wherein before the coating step, the surface of the fiber-reinforced composite material is subjected to polishing, sandpaper polishing, ultrasonic treatment, plasma processing, corona processing or oxidant treatment.